Marrying Outside the Faith
Good Morning,
There is a long string of biblical problems with the contemporary church movement. There is confusion over which Bible to read. There is confusion over the importance of the church in general. The biggest problem might be the issue of separation.
The average contemporary church has no concept of the idea found in 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you…”
There is separation in a lot of different ways, but for the brevity of this moment, I will deal exclusively with the issue of dating and marriage.
When a church has no problem with Christian children being involved in secular sports leagues, those children are more likely to become close friends with unsaved children. This is not a sin, but a direction; it is not necessarily wrong, but it is the progression of accepting the lifestyle, vocabulary, and motivations of the lost world around us.
When Christian children are not taught to be separate, they are more likely to become close friends with those in their neighborhood. That leads to going to the movies, going to dances, and going to parties with each other. Now a close relationship between the saved and the lost has begun. That close relationship is wrong! (Read the entire context of the above passage in 2 Corinthians 6.)
As children grow older, they build a greater tolerance toward those who are unsaved. They recognize these worldly people are their friends. Your children know there is booze and vulgarity in the homes of their friends, but they justify the relationship because their friends are nice people. Separating from the “nice people” is very difficult. When the dating age comes around (whatever you want to say it is), these Christian young people do not have a problem dating someone who is not a Christian.
Students who attend colleges that are secular and become involved in secular activities, secular morality, and the secular motivation for life, education, employment, and the value of money and materialism, the unsaved will become their closest friends. This creates difficulty in explaining why they should not date and marry those unsaved people. They have been friends with them, or people like them, all of their lives. Why not fall in love and marry? Even more often, they end up living together unmarried because that is what their friends are doing, and that is what makes the person they love happy. The key is to not be close friends and to not fall in love with those who live contrary to the principles of God’s Word.
Our contemporary church movement has failed dramatically in teaching this matter of separation. There should be separation in many areas, but for the moment, let us consider the number of Christians, especially Christian girls, who date and marry an unsaved guy. He is a nice guy; he is a thoughtful guy, and he works – but he is lost. When they get married, that lost lifestyle and lost philosophy of life (satanic) will take over and destroy what Christian parents spent years trying to instill in their little girl. Soon liquor creeps into the home, and the entertainment drifts far from scriptural. The values being instilled in the children now are entirely worldly because the unsaved dad did not know how to teach spiritual truth. Often, the end result is infidelity and a broken marriage.
The compromising church and compromising pastor caused all this hurt because they would not preach on separation. Sadly, it happens to the very best of God’s people.
There is an endless string of Bible verses that teach this, but for the sake of time, here are just a few:
Exodus 34:16 “And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.”
1 Kings 11:4 “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods:”
Ezra 9:12 “Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.”
Nehemiah 10:30 “And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons:”
Nehemiah 13:25 “And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.”
Pastor